DFC launches first golf clinic

Dennis Franklin Cromarty High School recently added golf to the list of extracurricular activities offered to students.
A golf clinic has been being held at Whitewater Golf Club throughout the fall for interested students of the sport to try to swing a club for the first time. Whitewater had golf teachers on hand for the students, along with other golf enthusiasts from the Thunder Bay community to practice at the range, putting green and even play a few rounds on the course.
“The idea started after the second annual Raising Awareness golf tournament at the Fort William Country Club,” said Michael McKay, who is a volunteer helping out with the clinic.
Proceeds from the annual charity tournament, held this past June, went towards the DFC in school drug program.
“It gave us the idea to want to venture out and try something different with the students,” McKay said about the students learning the game of golf.
So far, nine DFC students have come out to the clinic.
“Golf is such a hard game to play,” Albert Drake said.
Drake is one of the teachers at the clinic.
“We want to provide exposure for the kids coming from the north. You can see golf on TV but to make the connection to play golf and pick up a club is different. It’s a game that once you learn, you can pick up and play whenever you want and they’ll be able to play it their whole lives,” Drake said.
“It’s different than going to the hockey rink,” Kevin Kakakegamic, a teacher at DFC said.
“It’s a new sport for all the students. The students never had an opportunity to learn and have a chance to swing a club. Some of the students were a bit uneasy at first to try it, but there’s potential. They are mostly interested in hockey, broom ball, volleyball and baseball, but in a few years time if we make golf available to them we hope it can grow the popularity of the sport,” Kakakegamic said.
Until now, there never was a means of resources for DFC to provide golf to the students, but now people are volunteering their time and Whitewater Golf is providing the resources. DFC hopes they will pick up the clinic again in May prior to the school year ending.
“Hopefully DFC will continue to promote what we’ve started here and perhaps there will be a bigger involvement in the spring so that more students can come out and ask questions... we all live in town here too, so we can speak to the students more in depth about the game too,” Travis Boissoneau, a volunteer said.
“Golf isn’t just a game it teaches you life skills, teaches you how to be honest. It teaches you about respect. That’s what I’ve learnt from golf. It doesn’t matter what background you have, everyone has respect for the game.” Randy Budge said.
Budge is another volunteer from the community who is helping promote the game to DFC.
“It’s a competition within yourself to be better, not as a golfer but as a person,” added.
Kirsten Hill, the recreation coordinator at DFC, hopes the clinic being held in the fall will create some buzz around the school for other students.
“It really helps when planning new activities that a buzz is created around something for the students, so this clinic in the fall is really something we can build around. The students here will come back with stories and get the other students interested,” Hill said.